The Weekly Stuff #437 – Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan’s Island Movie Review & Discussion

We start today’s show by chatting about work, with Sean telling a funny story about getting a teaching certification, before discussing our love for the fantastic anime Kaguya-sama: Love is War, but then it’s time for Gundam! And this week, both Gundam as a franchise and Weekly Suit Gundam as a podcast are coming full circle by returning to the world of First Gundam, with the brand-new movie set in the timeline of the original show, Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan’s Island! A remake of the infamous 15th episode of Mobile Suit Gundam – an episode with such a troubled production that creator Yoshiyuki Tomino has never allowed it to be distributed outside Japan – original Gundam character designer and animation supervisor Yoshikazu Yasuhiko returns as director to redeem this story of a Zeon deserter protecting war orphans on a deserted island. It’s an absolutely wonderful movie, as beautifully animated as one would expect from the great Yasuhiko, but also incredibly smart and soulful in its themes and storytelling, finding a particularly compelling story for original Gundam protagonist Amuro Ray, played again here – possibly for the last time – by a never-better Tōru Furuya. This is a great movie, and an absolute pleasure to discuss for our final Weekly Suit Gundam before the launch of Japanimation Station. Enjoy!Time Chart: Intro & Stuff: 0:00:00 – 0:23:17Gundam Cucuruz Doan: 0:23:17 – 2:33:31Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast!Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts!Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter!Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter!
Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.comSubscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://japanimationstation.comRead Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vKSubscribe to our YouTube channels! Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation  Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcastSupport the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuffOriginal Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman